League of Legends Flame Friday: TSM needs to look beyond Grig and Akaadian
By Josh Tyler
Should TSM choose Grig or Akaadian? If they want to be the best League of Legends team in NA, let alone the world, the answer is probably not to choose.
Grig or Akaadian. That’s the choice that’s seemed to face the most storied League of Legends franchise in North America. But, after a fair bit of analysis, the best answer for TSM might actually be neither.
Jungle has long been a problem for TSM ever since the days of the TheOddOne‘s decline and eventual retirement. He was followed up by Maurice “Amazing” Stückenschneider (currently the starting jungler on 100 Thieves), Lucas “Santorin” Tao Kilmer Larsen (the current starting jungler for FlyQuest), Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen (the starter for C9 and a top-two jungler in the LCS), Michael “MikeYeung” Yeung (tentatively the starter for Echo Fox), and now the two men battling for the role.
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On one side, we have Jonathan “Grig” Armao, the returning jungler from TSM’s disastrous 2018 season. Taking the reigns over for MikeYeung after the former Rookie of the Year struggled in his first split with TSM, Grig performance in the Summer Split was shaky, with memes of him being a “low tempo jungler” following his performance. Nevertheless, TSM fans entered the 2019 season with the expectation that Grig would be the full-time jungler.
However, a wrist injury sidelined Grig for the entirety of the 2019 Spring Split, passing the starting spot to Matthew “Akaadian” Higginbotham. With an aggressive, yet unpolished, style of jungling, Akaadian helped TSM get to the LCS finals, one win away from defeating Team Liquid. Despite the team’s success, Akaadian’s inconsistencies in spring caused the team to leave the door open for Grig once his injury healed.
Thus, TSM went into the Summer Split with a substitute system in place, splitting time between the two junglers. Now, with the push for the playoffs ramping up, neither player has clearly separated them from the other for this starting role. So, which player should TSM be relying on more going into the 2019 Summer Playoffs?